Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Willingham was elected to chair the meeting. Before the meeting got underway, he put on record his thanks to members of the licensing, enforcement and public protection teams for their hard work during race week – it was much appreciated. 

There were none.

Councillor Willingham said he will be attending two music festivals later in the year in Germany, but these have no connection with Wychwood.

Councillors Willingham and Wheeler visited the site today.

Councillor Sankey attended Wychwood festival on the Sunday last year.

Introduction

The Chair explained how the meeting would proceed, and the Licensing and Public Protection Manager introduced her report, setting out the main issues and options available to Members. She reminded Members that the festival has been at the racecourse for 20 years, with the main stage relocated in 2023.  Live music ends at 11.00pm, and there have been no reported breaches of conditions or enforcement action taken against the premises licence holder.

In response to a Member’s questions, she said the council has received no previous complaints in relation to the licensing objectives, other than noise, which will be covered in the environmental health officer’s presentation.

There were no questions from the review applicant or premises licence holder.

Review applicant’s case

The review applicant thanked the licensing team for accepting the review, and environmental health officer Amy McArthur for her assistance.  He said his application arose from having the ability to interpret the data and know it is evidential, and the severe effect the noise from the festival has on his seriously ill partner, as well as other residents. He made the following points:

-       local residents don’t want the licence to be revoked, but it is clear from the comments how loud and disruptive the music is, particularly the low frequency noise, which last year could be felt as well as heard inside houses in Park Lane over the entire weekend. With the festival growing each year, the hearing is an opportunity to future-proof the licence, and the easiest way to compromise audience enjoyment and public nuisance is a condition around where the stages are set, moving them to the other end of the helifield, further away from houses and facing away from residential areas;

-       all comments show that the current licence is unclear and at the very least needs to be changed so that it is obvious whether or not a breach has taken place - important for the public and for the council when enforcing the conditions of the licence.  To achieve this, the absolute level of 60dB should be dropped, and the licence should  stipulate an absolute level of 55dB;

-       it would be interesting to understand if the festival organisers, while not actually breaking the licence conditions, could be said to have bent the rules to suit themselves.  The noise observation report for 2024 states that where the target level of 55dB is exceeded, suitable and appropriate action should be taken to meet that target, with the absolute noise level set at 60dB. It also states that the noise management plan will include details on the response level for any deviation from the target level, which would suggest that every time the level goes over 55dB, sound engineers should try to bring it down to 55dB, with a buffer created to stop it from going over 60dB.  However, the report appendix, which details noise observation and the actions taken during the event to control and manage it, shows many examples of the levels  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

There was no urgent business on this occasion.